FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 18, 2007
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak
Sens. Hutchison, Corker Urge Immediate Bipartisan Negotiation on SCHIP
All 18 GOP Senate SCHIP Supporters Sign Letter to Bicameral Leadership
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R–TX), chairman of Senate Republican Policy Committee, Sen. Bob Corker (R–TN) and the entire block of 18 Republican Senators who originally supported the SCHIP bill in the Senate today sent a letter to the Congressional leadership urging immediate bipartisan negotiation. Earlier today in the House of Representatives the SCHIP bill failed to reach the 290 vote threshold to override a presidential veto. The final vote count in the House was 273-156.
“Today we sent a letter to the leadership in Congress to say please sit down with the President and let’s have a win for the poor children in our country,” said Sen. Hutchison. “The key here is that we can expand the coverage to all the children who are eligible and I think that should be the goal.”
“This SCHIP bill has been demagogued to death,” said Corker. “It's not a perfect bill. I think everyone knows that $5 billion is far too little to fund the program and that the $35 billion could be trimmed and the program still be whole. So let’s put the partisanship and rhetoric aside and find a number that responsibly funds SCHIP and strengthens the program so that children from low-income families have access to health insurance.”
Along with Senators Hutchison and Corker, the letter was signed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R–IA), the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sens. Lamar Alexander (R–TN), Kit Bond (R–MO), Norm Coleman (R–MN), Susan Collins (R–ME), Pete Domenici (R–NM), Orrin Hatch (R–UT), Richard Lugar (R–IN), Lisa Murkowski (R–AK), Pat Roberts (R–KS), Gordon Smith (R–OR), Arlen Specter (R–PA), Olympia Snowe (R–ME), Ted Stevens (R–AK), John Sununu (R–NH) and John Warner (R–VA).
TEXT OF THE LETTER:
** Addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Republican Leader John Boehner
Dear Leaders:
As Republican members of the Senate who supported and voted for H.R. 976, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2007, we urge continued action on a bipartisan basis to build on our efforts in order to arrive at a bill to reauthorize health insurance for low-income children. We remain committed to reauthorizing this important program, and we urge you to continue seeking thoughtful input from both sides of the aisle.
As you are aware, the House today voted to sustain the President’s veto of the CHIP compromise that passed the House and Senate. Like any good compromise, Members on both sides of the aisle had reservations about certain provisions in the final bill, yet we voted in favor of this legislation because we believed it provided the funding necessary to continue this important program and improve many of its weaknesses. In light of recent events, however, we believe that it is imperative that we all work together without delay to arrive at a reauthorization bill that can be passed by Congress and become law.
Now that the veto of H.R. 976 has been sustained, we must move forward with legislation that can resolve our differences and reauthorize the program. While our support for that legislation has been registered, it is our hope that the next phase of this effort will be productive and not degenerate into gridlock and partisanship.
Our votes represented a promise to help low-income children, and we are committed to remaining true to that promise. By voting in favor of H.R. 976, we have demonstrated our willingness to work on a bipartisan basis. We strongly believe that health coverage of low-income children must remain the number one goal of the CHIP program.
Low-income children and states need a stable and improved program rather than a series of temporary extensions. We look forward to continuing to work on this important effort.
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